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University of Chicago and Philanthropy Partners Announce Grants to Tackle the Racial Wealth Divide and Foster Urban Equity in Chicago

CHICAGO, IL— Today, the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement announced the winners of its new Urban America Forward Catalyst Grant program. The program awards $35,000 grants to racial justice or social justice non-profit organizations to bolster their capacity to carry out financial empowerment and reduce the racial wealth gap in their cities. […]

Illinois News features Sunshine’s Role in the PERC Initiative

Sunshine is proud to be 1 of 5 organizations offering technical assistance to returning citizens to start and grow businesses! This past Monday, Gov. Bruce Rauner announced this new innovative program at Sunshine’s headquarters. This new program helps former offenders become entrepreneurs and increases economic opportunity for the city’s most needed communities! Training services for […]

Twenty-three aspiring entrepreneurs — ranging from businesses in the embryonic stages to those established in brick-and-mortar — showed up to begin or continue their respective journeys on the road to entrepreneurship. Surface discussions on marketing, pricing models and SWOT analyses always led back to targeting the right consumer market. From customary elevator pitches, the importance […]

UChicago partners with Sunshine Enterprises to support neighborhood-based entrepreneurs

On April 29, the University celebrated the first anniversary of its UChicago Local initiative by announcing a new partnership with Woodlawn-based Sunshine Gospel Ministries’ Sunshine Enterprises, which provides business education and coaching specifically tailored to small, neighborhood-based entrepreneurs. Read more.

Meet Your Neighbor: Sunshine Enterprises

Businesses are the cornerstone of any neighborhood, providing stability, growth, and a sense of community investment. Local businesses often rely on each other, so when businesses close or shut down, that often results in community deterioration. Sunshine Enterprises, a Chicago-area non-profit, is looking to make a positive impact matters in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Read more.

Chicago Expands Small Business Financing Program

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expanding the city’s Small Business Opportunity Center Program (SBOCP), a comprehensive financial service initiative for small businesses, via new centers that will be located throughout the city. The centers will maintain a $5 million budgets designated for small business loans, with authorization to loan out up to $250,000 each. New […]

Open for business | Greenline harkens to Woodlawn’s more vibrant days.

Over 120 years ago, the Green Line “L” train system was built in preparation for the World’s Fair of 1893. It provided a route from downtown to the exposition, located in an area of the south side that would later become the Woodlawn neighborhood. In the 50s, the area attracted middle-class blacks looking to setup […]

WBEZ | Entrepreneurs in low-income areas find ways to grow businesses

In underserved communities, entrepreneurs have a hard time finding capital to start and grow their businesses.But several programs in Chicago are helping these micro-business owners secure loans and be financially successful. One of those programs is Sunshine Gospel Ministries in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Participants regularly go through hypothetical scenarios to learn how to complete contracts […]

ABC7 | GREENLINE COFFEE A NEW GATHERING PLACE FOR WOODLAWN NEIGHBORHOOD

Like any serious coffee shop, the beans are ground and the espresso is pulled to-order, while milk is steamed throughout the day. But Greenline Coffee isn’t just any cafe, it’s a partnership with Sunshine Gospel Ministries [Sunshine Enterprises] across the street, which helped convert an old abandoned grocery store into a new kind of gathering […]

Chicago Reader | Best New Small Business Incubator 2014

A three-block stretch of 61st Street, from King Drive to [Cottage Grove Avenue], is like many on the south side: once a thriving commercial corridor, it now consists largely of vacant lots and boarded storefronts. Sunshine Enterprises, a nonprofit with an office on that strip, seeks to help entrepreneurs launch small businesses, partly in the […]